Vishesh Films on Tuesday announced the release date of its highly anticipated Awarapan 2. A sequel to one of the most beloved cult films of Emraan Hashmi’s career, Awarapan 2, also starring Disha Patani, will release in cinemas worldwide on August 14.
The Independence Day weekend release of the film would mean a box-office clash with another feature that had booked the weekend with an August 13 release: Lahore 1947, starring Sunny Deol and produced by Aamir Khan.
"Awarapan is an emotion so large that it's meant for the big screen," producer Vishesh Bhatt said in a statement about the sequel, currently in its final leg of production in Mumbai.
"It also presents exotic settings and large scale sequences but fundamentally it's built on our core principles of layered storytelling with powerful characters and rich music. Emraan felt the angst of Shivam so deeply that he stepped into character in a heartbeat. And with Disha Patani joining us, the world of the film opened up to new possibilities," he added.
The film is directed by Nitin Kakkar (Filmistan) and written by Bilal Siddiqui, who last penned Aryan Khan's directorial debut Bads of Bollywood, which premiered on Netflix last year.
Meanwhile, Lahore 1947 is directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, who has previously helmed blockbusters with Deol with films like Ghayal (1990), Damini (1993) and Ghatak (1996). Lahore 1947 also marks Santoshi's reunion with Khan after their cult comedy Andaaz Apna Apna.
Often regarded as one of his finest performances, Awarapan (2007) featured Hashmi chronicling the redemption arc of a gangster. The film was directed by Mohit Suri and though it tanked at the box-office, went on to garner a massive fan following over the years thanks to its chartbuster music and dialogues.
In an interview with THR India, Hashmi had said that Awarapan 2 would bring back "Bollywood music".
“We’re going to get it back. Awarapan is coming back, and we are going to have some really banger tracks on it," he had said.
